Truth be told, the only thing I really knew about pawn shops came from what I had heard from others and what I had seen on TV. I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into when one of my classmates floated the idea of us visiting one after lunch one day, simply to see what it is like.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It was an element of surprise. Akhilan Kumaran, Maxwell Shealy, and I were walking out of Bae’s Burgers, our senior lunch spot, when we noticed the enticing hidden gem, lying in plain sight: Mooresville’s Aisle Pawnshop sitting right there on Main Street.
Looking for approval from Max and I, Akhilan asked, “Want to stop by and kill some time?”
Who were we to say no to such an enticing question? Granting him the approval he pretty much knew was coming anyway, we walked to the entrance, stopped in our tracks, and gazed in awe.
There was so much to see, even just looking through the window. The amount of knick-knacks and firearms that we all saw for sale captured our attention like a senior to senior skip day.
Once I opened the door, the antique scent entered my nose almost immediately. The scent was strong, and all I could envision were the strange places and settings where all the preserved items had come from, the smells they brought with them and how they were now blended into one. If you have ever wandered through the fragrance section of a department store, it was like that, except the smells were far from pleasant.
Scent was not the only sense that overwhelmed me; my sight started playing tricks on me, too. Never in my life had I seen so many different, disparate items all gathered in one place. The colors of the worn carpet, the wooden checkout counter, and the hanging firearms were in my complete vision.
I blinked a few times to see if it was real.
It was.
When we walked around the pawn shop, we learned something else entirely surprising. It wasn’t so much all about what objects were there as it was about how they were put together and displayed. All three of us recognized how efficient the store was at using its space. The amount of random items we found in every nook and cranny was nothing shy of remarkable.
In one of the glass cases near the front desk, I found my favorite spot. This is where I discovered about $4 worth of antique pennies, face value of course. Upon investigating further, I realized most of these pennies were more than 50 years old, some dating back 100 years.
Where have these pennies been? What stories do they have to share? Who touched them and who carried them and for how long? Were any involved in shady deals or illegal purchases at some point in history? I had an endless amount of questions
My eyes widened and my smile rose as I kept flipping over coins and seeing the dates. In my hands were actual parts of American history, things I could envision as I held him in my hands. At that moment, the pawn shop became more than just a store; it was, to me, a time machine and portal back through centuries.
After looking at all of the antique coins, I wound up coming across something very, very rare. Completely different and random. A brand new, never-before-seen, Katana cleaning kit. While I know I don’t have a Katana, and I have no practical purpose for one, I said to myself that this is the perfect reason to get one. But then I thought there might be more interesting options, different items and knick-knacks just as rare and random, so I decided to keep my options open and put the Katana cleaning kit on the back burner for now.
Just as I was turning a corner to discover more and more pawnshop treasures, my friends reminded me it was time to leave. The rest of the mysteries will have to wait to be discovered on another visit.
When we got back to class that Friday, while our stomachs were full of burgers, our minds overflowed with everything we saw, touched, and smelled in that little pawn shop.
I’m not sure if visits to pawn shops should be officially sanctioned school American history field trips, but I do think that there’s a lot we can learn from them by actually visiting them, opening up our minds to our senses, and just seeing what happens.
The lessons I learned go far beyond the for sale items, too. The clash of cultures, new experiences, and friendly people make visiting pawn shops all worth it, even more than what we see on TV.
